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Former Terrebonne teacher faces new theft allegations

N.O. schools' background checks fail to turn up past charges

Rebecca Catalanello and Heather MillerThe Lens

Published: Monday, May 13, 2013 at 7:33 a.m.

Last Modified: Monday, May 13, 2013 at 7:33 a.m.

A former Terrebonne Parish teacher who is being investigated by police for theft and fraud involving $31,000 from New Orleans Military and Maritime Academy in Algiers has been accused before of taking public school funds.

Darrell K. Sims, 54, a former business manager at the academy, was accused of misappropriating $1,642 from the Terrebonne Parish School Board in 1996-97.

It was one of a number of arrests in Sims' past that the academy's top school administrator said did not show up in an employee background check conducted when Sims was hired in 2011.

That could be because the school's background check, required by the state but conducted by a private company, encompassed only arrests in the past seven years. The state offers a background search that goes back further. The state's more expansive background check also turns up charges, such as the Terrebonne one, that are resolved through pretrial intervention.

Carlos Lazarus, assistant district attorney in Terrebonne Parish, said Sims entered pretrial intervention after he was charged with theft of more than $500 in school funds between August 1996 and June 1997.

Sims also is being monitored by Terrebonne prosecutors after he was accused in 2011 of writing a $9,000 worthless check. Sims is on a plan to pay back that amount over time. But because he hasn't been charged with a crime related to the check, it wouldn't have come up in a background search either.

Sims is now employed at another campus, Joseph A. Craig Charter School in Treme, as a data manager.

Over the years, Sims has been arrested several times on charges of writing worthless checks, according to court and police records. In 1998, according to police records, he passed a $136 worthless check at a Super 10 in Lafourche Parish and a $673 worthless check at Nicholls State University. He was arrested and booked in Terrebonne on warrants for those charges and another for speeding.

The academy commandant, Col. Bill Davis, said when Sims was asked in writing on July 7, 2011, whether he'd ever been convicted of a crime — including "but not limited to pleas of guilty, nollo contendre, no contest, adjudication withheld, and pretrial intervention programs" — he checked a box that said "no."

In May 2012, records show, Sims was dismissed from the academy for reasons related to his use of computers at the school.

This is an abridged version of a story originally published by The Lens, an independent, nonprofit newsroom serving New Orleans.

<p>A former Terrebonne Parish teacher who is being investigated by police for theft and fraud involving $31,000 from New Orleans Military and Maritime Academy in Algiers has been accused before of taking public school funds.</p><p>Darrell K. Sims, 54, a former business manager at the academy, was accused of misappropriating $1,642 from the Terrebonne Parish School Board in 1996-97.</p><p>It was one of a number of arrests in Sims' past that the academy's top school administrator said did not show up in an employee background check conducted when Sims was hired in 2011.</p><p>That could be because the school's background check, required by the state but conducted by a private company, encompassed only arrests in the past seven years. The state offers a background search that goes back further. The state's more expansive background check also turns up charges, such as the Terrebonne one, that are resolved through pretrial intervention.</p><p>Carlos Lazarus, assistant district attorney in Terrebonne Parish, said Sims entered pretrial intervention after he was charged with theft of more than $500 in school funds between August 1996 and June 1997.</p><p>Sims also is being monitored by Terrebonne prosecutors after he was accused in 2011 of writing a $9,000 worthless check. Sims is on a plan to pay back that amount over time. But because he hasn't been charged with a crime related to the check, it wouldn't have come up in a background search either.</p><p>Sims is now employed at another campus, Joseph A. Craig Charter School in Treme, as a data manager.</p><p>Over the years, Sims has been arrested several times on charges of writing worthless checks, according to court and police records. In 1998, according to police records, he passed a $136 worthless check at a Super 10 in Lafourche Parish and a $673 worthless check at Nicholls State University. He was arrested and booked in Terrebonne on warrants for those charges and another for speeding.</p><p>The academy commandant, Col. Bill Davis, said when Sims was asked in writing on July 7, 2011, whether he'd ever been convicted of a crime — including "but not limited to pleas of guilty, nollo contendre, no contest, adjudication withheld, and pretrial intervention programs" — he checked a box that said "no."</p><p>In May 2012, records show, Sims was dismissed from the academy for reasons related to his use of computers at the school.</p><i>This is an abridged version of <a href="http://thelensnola.org/2013/04/23/former-employee-investigated-for-stealing-31000-from-charter-school-once-charged-with-theft-from-terrebone-school/"> a story</a> originally published by <a href="http://thelensnola.org/">The Lens</a>, an independent, nonprofit newsroom serving New Orleans.</i>